Country Focus: Indonesia in readiness for a sustainability agenda

Indonesia is making
the cut in its Industry
4.0 ambitions with a
sustainability agenda.
Sustainability through the
recycling innovation was
an overarching theme at
the Plastics and Rubber
(P&R) Indonesia show
held in November last
year in Jakarta. Organised
by PT Pamerindo
Indonesia, the show
featured technology
solutions for recycling,
material economies and
productivity across a range
of industries.

From a top polluter to a waste-solution provider?

A 2015 University of Georgia study alleging Indonesia as the world’s worst
polluter of the oceans has pushed the country to right its wrongs, such as its
commitment to reducing waste by 70% by 2025, and investing US$1 billion/year
to curb waste accumulation in its oceans. The government has also struck deals
with investors to create an infrastructure for this.

However, not all Indonesians are convinced by the US study. Amelia Maran
of the Indonesia Plastic Recyclers (IPR) refuted the 2015 study, opining that the
sampling and information used were not obtained first hand from Indonesia. As
well, the methodology used is under question by the Ministry of Industry.

Meanwhile, Sutrisno of the 60-member GIATPI (Indonesia Woven Polyolefin
Manufacturers Association) also said the Georgia study pitched “incorrect data”.
He added, “When we make our products,
we make it a point that we use recyclable
materials.”

While the waste management situation in
Indonesia is far from perfect, challenges are
being addressed, said Maran. “Government
regulation is still lacking for effective
recycling. Now, we are just starting to
disseminate information to the public about
recycling,” she said, adding that IPR is a
relatively new organisation that has yet a
clear vision of a circular economy.

The association currently has 40
members, all of whom are recycling
companies.

“Indonesia has a sizeable recycling
industry, with about 1.1 million tonnes/
year of plastic waste recycled,” Maran
said. Yet, the rate is still low at 20%, she
said, suggesting the need for more municipal recycling facilities (MRFs) and the
implementation of a proper waste management/collection system.

The plastic bag ban, specifically in retail markets, Maran observed has lacked
the grit to curb waste. “Some supermarkets have started charging for plastic
bags but this practice has been stopped, to avoid the bags landing up in landfills
and thereafter in the oceans.”

Plastic ban not a cure-all to waste problem

PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical, Indonesia’s largest petrochemical company,
is also of a mind that the bottom line of the waste problem is not the plastic
itself but in how people manage waste. “Chandra Asri is focusing on educating
people,” said Andri Wijaya, Engineer Technical Services.

Wijaya and his colleague, Polymer Sales Executive Mario Saputra, also
opined that there are solutions more viable than a ban. “We need to think of
ways to recover energy from waste plastic as well as use the waste in road
construction.”

He offered that Chandra Asri is collaborating with the Ministry of People
Housing and Public Works with its sustainable programme, whereby plastic
waste is recycled into pellets, which are blended into a road bitumen mix, with
the pellets making up 30% of the mix.

In fact,
Chandra Asri’s
petrochemical
complex located
in Cilegon,
Banten, has
made use of the plastic asphalt on a road outside,
containing 6% or 3 tonnes of plastic waste, for a start.

Meanwhile, Chandra Asri also offers the oxodegradable
plastic. “Oxo-degradables degrade by
oxygen, not by biological means. It is an oil-based
option and the cost (of oxo-degradables) is nearly the
same as that of conventional plastics. Thus, they are
used in plastic bags by some retailers,” said Wijaya.

Redeeming the value of plastic waste with recycling

A prerequisite in a circular economy is the recyclability
of materials. In this regard, recycling technologies
become co-creators of the industry to achieve circularity.

To counter the low adoption of recycling is to make
the process less complicated and Polystar, a third time
exhibitor in P&R Indonesia, says it offers such a solution.
The firm says its HNT three-in-one machine line, which
combines a cutter compactor with extruding and
pelletising systems, boasts a high efficiency output and
can process different plastic types, including HDPE,
LDPE, LLDPE, BOPP, OPP and CPP.

Meanwhile, German blown film extrusion technology
specialist Hosokawa Alpine, which was pitching its
technology for film lines at the show, is pushing for
complete PE solutions for films for better recyclability.

“The future will be more on recyclability of products.
Having said this, we need to create products that are
easily recyclable,” said Joachim Oberhauer, Operations
Director, at Hosokawa Alpine. “Many products are
made with a combination of materials like PA, PE, and
other such types that are complicated to recycle. That
is why we are promoting the three or five-layer PE film
solutions for better recyclability later,” he said.

Edge with energy and material economies

Machines that are energy efficient are sought after for
their promise of savings in energy consumption and
production costs.

KG Ravi and Suresh Mohan from PT Ergon Oil
Indonesia reiterated that Indonesia’s lower cost of labour
and operations, nonetheless, would benefit from energy
efficient strategies. US-based Ergon that is involved
in crude oil processing and naphthenic and paraffin
speciality oils has storage facilities in Indonesia.

At the show, Ergon featured its Hyprene process
oil, which Mohan touted as “genuine naphthenic oils
produced to exacting specifications and designed for a
variety of processing applications with good solvency,
low odour and colour stability characteristics”.

MC Balance’s dosing
cylinder releases the
additive in a steady
flow, while the
stepper motor ensures
maximum control
with no stoppages or
pulsations, said Olsson.

Representing the
marvel of i4.0, MC
Balance also calibrates
the dosages and adjusts
it automatically through
the MCSmart system.
Olsson explained:
“MCSmart can monitor
every shot, right down
to the percentages of
additives and regrinds
used. It’s like a 100% quality assurance software that is
working 24 hours. The
data is stored in a server
and is easy to retrieve for
later use.”

Energy reduction is
definitely a priority for
customers, according
to Dario Pagetti, Sales
Area Manager, Colines,
an Italian extrusion line
producer.

At the show, Colines
introduced an MDO unit,
equipped with cloud
technology, for energy/
material savings. “We
have introduced a new
4.0 industry software
that allows us to manage
and troubleshoot via a
computer and the Internet, from Italy,” Pagetti said, adding
that Colines runs service
points in Indonesia as
well as Thailand and
India, and from this
year, in China, too.

First time exhibitor
at the show, Austrian
extrusion machinery
maker SML, hails
a combination of
quality, innovation and
efficiency as its formula
for sustainability. At the
show, the Malaysian
arm of SML promoted
lines for economical
production of large
quantities through the
extra wide CPP film line. With a maximum output of 2,300 kg/hour, the CPP line
also provides the advantages of reduced labour costs as
well as less kW/kg power consumption requirement.

Gerald Ausweger, Managing Director at SML, also
spoke about the new barrier sheet lines, installed in
Thailand for a packaging company, as an example of
efficiency SML caters to.

Outlook for the Indonesian and Asian markets

Polystar, which has recently moved to a much larger
location in Tainan near its previous facility, has
witnessed 30% growth in sales, according to David Lo,
Marketing Manager of the Taiwanese recycling machine
company, partly due to the opportunities presented by
China’s plastic waste import ban.

“Vietnam has been a main market; and Malaysia
and Japan offer opportunities. This is since China has
barred waste shipments from other countries and we
are able to service these countries,” Lo said.

Lo of Polystar sees recycling as a long term staple
for i4.0 economies in Asia, including Indonesia. “In five
to ten years, recycling
will be an important
business in Indonesia
and in Asia. Recycling
solutions will be
important tools in
the future due to the
dwindling energy and
petroleum supply. We
can use plastic waste
efficiently to recover
energy for further use,”
he said.

Alluding to the
potential of postconsumer
waste as a
source of high-value
materials, Lo also said
that recycling is an important issue in Indonesia as
it is a huge market due to the large number of film
processors catering to the packaging sector.

SML, which accounts for half the global market
share in stretch films, and is the largest supplier for
cast film lines worldwide, has a mixed outlook for
2019. In the context of the company’s performance and
that of the plastic machine sector in the previous year,
Ausweger said: “The last few years for plastic machine
manufacturers, with regards to Asia, have been really
tremendous and companies are really investing into
new capacities. I think that this good business climate
will carry over through 2019, but may eventually slow
down.”

“The impact of the US trade policies and the
imposed duties on certain imported products, may
result in uncertainties (in the industry); and in Europe,
which historically has a low unemployment rate, will
slow down slightly. But on the whole, economies are
still doing well,” he added, concluding on an optimistic
note for the industry sector.